Inspection: Whenever an upright is broken or bent it may cause damage to the top and bottom upright fittings, these parts should be inspected closely and replaced at any sign of wear or damage.

Service Requirement: Replace bottom upright fitting after 300 hours or if wire slot widens to greater than 4.8 mm.

It has been bought to our attention of a potential problem of the bottom upright fitting on gliders with round uprights. The wear has occurred on the slot where the ball swage fits into.
________________

"In about half of the servicing operations that we perform on hang gliders, we discover that the top A-frame bolt is bent.
This means that all too often, hang gliders are not serviced sufficiently often, and above all they are not serviced after heavy landings.
In addition, it is important to remember that the lower side wires are constantly stressed during flight.
It is fundamentally important to ensure that they are in good condition, and they should be replaced at least every two years or every 100 hours of flight.
For pilots who fly hang gliders with a competition A-frame, the lower side wires should be replaced every year or every 70 hours flight, considering their smaller cross-section and greater rigidity."

cont... FYI:

The standard inspection includes:

1. Removal of the sail;
2. Complete examination of the frame;
3. Check of the profile of all battens;
4. Crossbar load test;
5. Checks for any signs of tube oxidation;
6. Checks on bolts and the respective threaded holes;
7. Replacement of lower side wires; (and front and rear wires in the case of a competition control frame)
8. Reassembly of the hang glider;
9. Check of glider adjustments;
10. Final checks.

Then a test flight should be performed.
Excellent test flight check lists used to be found in Wills Wing Manuals. Example: from Page 72 to 73 in the Sport 167 Manual
Wills Wing test flight video with titles for each maneuver (but no commentary.) See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAyFjZiu0xI
__________________

It has been brought to our attention that the wire loops that hold the chin straps on Icaro Microlight helmets can fail.
The failure point has been close to where the wire attaches to the helmet. It can start with a broken strand in the stainless steel wire.

To inspect this you simply remove the inner lining of the helmet and bend the wire to see if any strands are broken.
If you find any damage to the wire do not use the helmet. A broken wire will cause the chin strap to come away and could result in the helmet falling from the head whilst flying.

Regular inspection is required. An update of this bulletin will be posted on the Airborne web site once Icaro have come up with a fix for the problem.

Exerpt Pg 13 - 14:
"Hypothesis A – In flight failure of the left crossbar. This explains the left lateral roll observed prior to the tumble and spin.
The pilot was flying at a moderate speed 66km/h when he encountered the edge of a strong thermal that loaded the crossbar significantly.
The weak spot due to a manufacturing error broke the upper part of the crossbar initiating the sequence of events.
This hypothesis implies that the weak spot in the cross bar was growing and it reached a critical size in this last flight.

Hypothesis B – Turbulence generating a tumble. We can point to three possible consequences:
Failure of the keel provoked by the impact of the pilots head on the section without inner reinforcements, failure of the crossbar due to the negative loads or the failure of an upright due to body impact.
Any of these three failures could have initiated the sequence of events that caused accident.
The weak assumption of this hypothesis is that no severe turbulence was reported by other pilots in the area and that the pilot was flying way above stall speed.

Hypothesis C – In flight failure of the keel, generating the tumble and subsequent torsions destroying the crossbar.
The failure of the keel would then cause the failure of the cross bar.
The problem of this hypothesis is that we know for sure that the keel broke rotating upwards in a clearly negative load situation.

Hypothesis D – a failure with the assembly / locking of the stabilizer may have provoked an erratic behaviour on the glider which helped generate the tumble.
Pictures taken during the pilot’s take-off indicate that at least the keel lock was in its place (Figure 19)."

1. Inspection of a new harness a pilot had purchased produced a reserve parachute that had two rubber bands wrapped around it to secure it during shipping.

2. At an IHPA parachute repack session one parachute was discovered that would not open when it was deployed. Indeed, it could not be opened as it was packed inside out!
The parachute had been purchased new (or at least, not repacked since it left the manufacturer) and was discovered to have been incorrectly packed by the manufacturer with the pull-down apex line running outside the rest of the canopy.
The owner/pilot had been flying with this canopy for some time with the entirely false sense of security that it offered.
This incident underlines the extreme importance of test deploying and repacking your parachute regularly and not relying on the manufacturer or others to get it right.

These incidents were forwarded to the BHPA Technical Officer who replied that this was by no means an isolated incident and not limited one manufacturer! - CHECK YOUR PARACHUTE or get it checked by a professional.

Here's a bit of perspective on our approach to setting the table mentally for our day of flying...
as well as leaving lots of room to make sure we haven't forgotten anything.

AndyLongVq wrote:
A few years ago, not long after I had gotten my Moyes Matrix Race harness, I launched from Funston for an approach and top landing practice session.
But I couldn't zip up my harness... no matter how many times I fully unzipped it, removed my legs and tried to zip up again.
Fortunately, I was able to simply top land, investigate, and solve the problem.

As I was putting the harness back on that day, I thought of what a huge bummer it would have been had this occurred on one of my big XC flight days.
So, ever since that day at Funston I now pre-flight my harness.
This includes, while the harness is on the ground on its back, fully zipping the harness up, and unzipping it.

It's amazing how often I find the opening and closing lines not quite right. Twists, bunches, etc. Full wraps even.
Doing a full zipping closed then open clears all the lines and then I velcro the tabs properly.
This has made for much cleaner and easier zip ups in the air after I launch.

And as far as having too much on your plate and rushing... bad, bad news. That's when you forget stuff. Like hooking in.

Friday, 24.10.2014
Precautionary expansion of the Recall
Recall of all delta karabiners FD00A
In the course of routine tests anomalies in strength of the major axis was observed at several pieces. Caused by inhomogeneous raw material, minimal stress cracks can occur at the bending. These cracks can be tricky, because they do not occur immediately.
Due to following tests and analysis, and in consequence of this, to avoid any risk to our customers, AustriAlpin has decided to take a precautionary extension of the current recall "DELTA carabiner"

Immediately stop using it!

1) Free exchange for new carabiners (if at least one of the following points applies):
Have you recently purchased your carabiner and are thus still within the 3 years warranty? (proof of purchase)
or has the carabiner been produced in our tolerance period (last 5 years) and has it one of the following batch numbers:
III Austrialpin IIIFriday, 24.10.2014
Precautionary expansion of the Recall
Recall of all delta karabiners FD00A
In the course of routine tests anomalies in strength of the major axis was observed at several pieces. Caused by inhomogeneous raw material, minimal stress cracks can occur at the bending. These cracks can be tricky, because they do not occur immediately.
Due to following tests and analysis, and in consequence of this, to avoid any risk to our customers, AustriAlpin has decided to take a precautionary extension of the current recall "DELTA carabiner"

Immediately stop using it!

1) Free exchange for new carabiners (if at least one of the following points applies):
Have you recently purchased your carabiner and are thus still within the 3 years warranty? (proof of purchase)
or has the carabiner been produced in our tolerance period (last 5 years) and has it one of the following batch numbers:
III Austrialpin III
II Austrialpin III
II Austrialpin II
00001
Ø 0001

Immediately stop using it!

Please find the replacement process in point 4.

2) Goodwill solution for obsolescent carabiners (5 years and older):
all links have to be eliminated at least after 5 years or 1500 hours of using
Immediately stop using it!
as a goodwill solution you will get the follow up model TROPOS (art.Nr. FD01A) at the special price of EUR 11.99 (incl. MWST)

Even if there is no ostensible risk, these carabiners are outdated and not supposed to be used any longer.
AustriAlpin takes no liability for any further use.
To ensure that all Delta carabiners are actually removed from the market, AustriAlpin is offering the mentioned goodwill solution.
The promotion is unique and exclusively in exchange for your old Delta carabiner.
All other AustriAlpin carabiners are NOT affected by this action.

3) Follow up model:
TROPOS (art.N. FD01A) is the evolution of proscribed Delta carabiner and distinguish unequivocal:
the closure sleeve is black instead of brass-colored
the bending radius is visibly increased
thus there can be no more stress cracks
Please understand that we will make all necessary tests before delivering the new carabiner.

4) Exchange process:
Please do return all carabiners immediately with using the attached form. We will replace the returned product as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Please pay the postage for the sending, for the recalled carabiners (point 1). As a compensation for shipping cost, you will receive a complimentary AustriAlpin carabiner (see return form). For the fairness solutions, we will pay the postage to you.

We will send the exchange as soon as possible, if your carabiner meets point 2, you will receive an invoice with your new carabiner, please pay this invoice (EUR 11,99 per piece) as soon as possible.

For more information, do not hesitate to contact us
Via phone: +43 5225 65248
Via email: <email>

The safety of our customers is of prime importance. We would like to apologize for the inconvenience of this precautionary measure and are kindly asking for your understanding and help.

2) Goodwill solution for obsolescent carabiners (5 years and older):
all links have to be eliminated at least after 5 years or 1500 hours of using
Immediately stop using it!
as a goodwill solution you will get the follow up model TROPOS (art.Nr. FD01A) at the special price of EUR 11.99 (incl. MWST)

Even if there is no ostensible risk, these carabiners are outdated and not supposed to be used any longer.
AustriAlpin takes no liability for any further use.
To ensure that all Delta carabiners are actually removed from the market, AustriAlpin is offering the mentioned goodwill solution.
The promotion is unique and exclusively in exchange for your old Delta carabiner.
All other AustriAlpin carabiners are NOT affected by this action.

3) Follow up model:
TROPOS (art.N. FD01A) is the evolution of proscribed Delta carabiner and distinguish unequivocal:
the closure sleeve is black instead of brass-colored
the bending radius is visibly increased
thus there can be no more stress cracks
Please understand that we will make all necessary tests before delivering the new carabiner.

4) Exchange process:
Please do return all carabiners immediately with using the attached form. We will replace the returned product as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Please pay the postage for the sending, for the recalled carabiners (point 1). As a compensation for shipping cost, you will receive a complimentary AustriAlpin carabiner (see return form). For the fairness solutions, we will pay the postage to you.

We will send the exchange as soon as possible, if your carabiner meets point 2, you will receive an invoice with your new carabiner, please pay this invoice (EUR 11,99 per piece) as soon as possible.

For more information, do not hesitate to contact us
Via phone: +43 5225 65248
Via email: recall@austrialpin.at

The safety of our customers is of prime importance. We would like to apologize for the inconvenience of this precautionary measure and are kindly asking for your understanding and help.

DMM are issuing a product recall, subject to user inspection.
This document details the products that are affected by the recall and contains instructions to identify whether or not an affected product should be returned to DMM.

In a small percentage of carabiners the interaction between the internal coil spring (which gives the gate its closing action) and the gate pusher (the component that holds the spring against the carabiner body)
may cause the gate pusher to displace, potentially preventing the gate from closing or the mechanism from locking completely.

This recall encompasses all of the products in the image below.
All models, all colors and all gate types are potentially affected by the dysfunction.

Gate Pusher User Inspection
Please use the following information to identify the type of gate pusher that is installed in your carabiner and subsequently whether or not your carabiner is affected by this recall.